If you’ve seen one dragon-slaying movie, you’ve seen them all. Mythical creatures that control the skies, terrorize denizens of castles and the countryside, until put down by the rouge hero with the tip of a broadsword. Right? Descriptions like this are pretty much par for the course. However, if you were expecting fair maidens, courageous knights, and dragon hunting as sport, you’d be more than a bit disappointed by what Rob Bowman’s 2002 epic “Reign of Fire” brings to the table.
In this we find not a rehashed tale of mythical proportions, but moving film that manages to insert the myths of fire breathing dragons into a realistic setting, pitting them against not heroes filled with bravado, but a cast of every-men set in motion by necessity and not thrill.
Set in 21st Century England, the movie starts with a young Quinn (Christian Bale), travelling down a mineshaft to visit his mother, who is a construction foreman. Here we are introduced to a young boy, unsure of the world, and reeling from the news that his scholarship to a private school fell through, and he hasn’t the money to attend. His face, when confronted with adversity, is strewn with uncertainty, dolor, and discontent.
However, it isn’t long until the literal-unthinkable happens: while helping one of the workers in the caverns, a horrifying creature breaks loose, its fire erupting first through the mineshaft, killing Quinn’s mother and many others. Quinn’s look once again is tell-tale of both himself and the rest of the world to follow: he simply cannot believe this is happening.
An ominous summary brings us up to date–dragons, once thought as mythical creatures are actually real, and were responsible for such things past as the extinctions of the dinosaurs and ice ages. They have been lying dormant for centuries, waiting for Earth to populate itself again before returning to turn the world to ash. And turn it to ash they have… “Time” magazine clippings with titles “Is This The End” and like media chronicle the destruction these monsters have invoked. Most of the world has fallen under their destructive breaths, and what hasn’t fallen to the dragons was destroyed by man, in subsequent nuclear strikes, in one vain attempt after another to kill the beasts.
This post-apocalyptic picture dominates as the movie begins. We flash forward to see a young Quinn grown up, working as a “fireman” in what appears to be the last human community in England as far as we can see. The community is medium-sized, roughly a hundred people, and we understand that Quinn is responsible for them. In this Quinn, we don’t see the scared youth of before, but a man of action. A feud early on in the film regarding a starving family wishing to venture out to the unprotected fields shows the hard decisions he must make and the strain with which he makes them. The dragons rule the sky, he does what he can but we see it may not be enough. People are hiding and starving and there’s little he can do about it. “Sleep with one eye on the sky,” he tells a group of children before bed. “And if you see a one of “them” dig hard, dig deep, go for shelter, and never look back.” They aren’t living; they’re surviving, and time is running out.
It’s at this point that a rouge marine unit, led by self-assured Denton Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey) comes upon the community’s shelter, seeking a place to re-arm and prepare for the next phase of their mission: killing dragons. At this request, Quinn is both skeptical and defensive. A dragon slayer? His incredulity at Van Zan’s effrontery is visible. “You’re a dragon-killer. That’s not even original. Dragons have ruled the sky for 20 years. That’s their territory.” Van Zan’s response, like Quinn’s, sets the stage for his character. “It’s my territory. It’s your territory. They’re just renting it.”
Thus begins an unlikely bond/feud between the two as each attempts to gain control of the situation. Quinn wants to protect his community and Van Zan wants to hunt dragons. And his method is somewhat preposterous, but, given the concept of the movie, seems to fit: “Arch Angels,” a new breed of paratroopers, jump out of a helicopter, snaring the dragon in bolas nets, where Van Zan finishes them off with a fired harpoon. It seems preposterous, but once Van Zan demonstrates its effectiveness by bringing one of the beasts down for the whole community to see, he has their attention. They rejoice, but Van Zan, who has lost three men in the operation, does not. “Envy the country that has heroes, huh?” He begins. It’s here that we finally see the pain and emotion that have lined Van Zan’s past. His eyes are no longer filled with pride but tears. “I say pity the country that needs them.”
Quinn begins to become weary, and the relationship between the two strains when he tries to stop Van Zan from forcing members of his community to go with him to London on a slaying expedition. His goal: the one type of dragon he has yet to find, the male, whom he believes is solely responsible for the repopulation of the whole hideous race. Quinn has seen it, he knows how ruthless it can be…and he doesn’t it want brought back to their sanctuary by Van Zan’s carelessness.
However, a sneak attack on their community by the noxious beast propels Quinn into action, casting himout of safety and into the heart of London with this rouge man that, he is starting to see, may just have a point after all. “There’s no middle ground,” he says. “Not for them, and not for us. We have paid a terrible price…but we’ve got the chance to make a difference. We will.”
It’s impossible to go further without spoiling the end of “Reign of Fire”, but suffice it to say that it lives up to what has been set up for us thus far. And aside from what some critics have said about this film, it is very good, and provides audiences with escapism in the purest form. We aren’t presented with reality, but an alternate form; one filled not with decorated heroes but broken, ordinary men persevering in the face of extreme adversity. You’ll appreciate Bale’s performance. You’ll love and hate Van Zan. But that’s the journey. If you take it, and you should, you’ll not be disappointed with the result.
